The long history of 450,000 downloads: iOrnament reveals background info

[prMac.com] Munich, Germany - In a recent interview with the TheAppleGoogle, Jurgen Richter-Gebert, the author of the popular maths-inspired creative drawing app iOrnament, talks about the long way from the first drafts to an internationally well-known app with almost half a million active users and 1,700 user ratings.

The app allows to create hand drawn symmetric patterns based on the rules of the 17 crystallographic wallpaper groups, that are well known in mathematics. In the interview the independent developer, head of science-to-touch(TM) and math professor Professor Richter-Gebert, reveals that the development history of iOrnament actually dates back to 1986, when he wrote a similar program on contemporary hardware for a big exhibition on symmetry as a student.

"Already then, the way, in which the ornament drawing program combines strict rules with creativity, immediately connected to people and made it a very popular exhibit. Over the years I have created several versions of this basic idea for various platforms and used in hands-on mathematics exhibitions. With the advent of the iPad the desire grew to have such a science/creativity tool optimized for touch driven input devices. This was the birth hour of the iOrnament App. The ultimate design goal was to have an app that -while still being mathematically correct- allows for true artistic expression." comments the app developer in the interview.

Since its release in mid 2012 the drawing app and creativity tool has attracted users from many different areas of interest. He says: "the users I know of are between 2 and 80 years old, they are artists, scientists, creative people, relaxation seekers, playful kids, craftsmen,..."

iOrnament has been widely taken up and is used in schools and universities to show the beauty of maths. It has also launched a world exhibition, was exhibited at events such as the Open Day of the Technical University Munich as frequently used by fashion and accessory designers.

In the interview with TheAppleGoogle the author not only talks about the development of the app but also about the first days on the App Store and his marketing experiences. This interview gives insight into the mechanism and life behind the App Store.

Major Features of iOrnament include
* Full support of all 17 wallpaper groups
* Supports also rosette, spherical and hyperbolic symmetries
* Artistic color palette and pen
* Glow pen to add highlights
* English and German language support
* Export to photos, e-mail and facebook
* Export to the Ornament World Exhibition
* Adjustable color palette
* Layers, brushes and color symmetries
* Extensive collection of tips for usage
* Preview of symmetries and fundamental cells
* Animated drawing process
* Change symmetry type on the fly
* Scroll, rotate, very high zoom range
* Slim intuitive user interface
* Unlimited undo/redo
* Full featured iPhone and iPad version
* Interactive tutorial on math backgrounds
* Sampler of classical ornaments
* Based on mathematical theory

Located in Munich, Germany, science-to-touch(TM) was founded in 2012 by Jurgen Richter-Gebert, mathematics professor and expert in geometry and visualization. It is a collection of projects which are aimed at interactive visualization of science. The basic philosophy behind the project is that visualization and interactivity makes content accessible, understandable and fun. Science-to-touch(TM) tries to provide high quality content that helps to get in touch with various interesting topics. All projects should be equally creative, informative and accessible. Copyright (C) 2015 Science-to-touch. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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